The UK government will unveil its lead cyber emergency response unit on 31 March, after delays had put the digital squadron on hold, the Guardian has learned.

The UK Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-UK) will work on developing the UK’s cyber resilience to state-sponsored and criminal attacks on critical systems, including those controlling the national energy supply and within government departments, according to the Cabinet Office.

Launch day, considered by the Cabinet Office as “a key milestone in the development of the UK’s cyber security capabilities”, will initiate a “first phase”, as part of an incremental rollout.

The CERT was announced in December 2012, when the Cabinet Office promised to deliver what is considered one of the most important parts of its £650m cybersecurity strategy within 12 months.

It soon conceded the project would be pushed back to early 2014, with few reasons given, other than the division needed more personnel, better technology and a headquarters. They were duly added, with Chris Gibson, formerly of the Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams (First), made director.

Neil Cassidy, former cyberdefence lead at government supplier Qinetiq, was made deputy director of operations. Andrew Whittaker, a former Foreign Office crisis management expert, was given the overall deputy director role.

The government has been co-ordinating with law enforcement bodies and the various industry-specific CERTs, including those based out of GCHQ and the Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure, over the last year on creating an effective response unit.

One of the key participants was the new National Cyber Crime Unit (NCCU), launched in October 2013, as part of the National Crime Agency. Kevin Williams, head of partnership engagement at the NCCU, said there had been “really good engagement” thus far with CERT-UK, which will be based at an as-yet undisclosed London location.

Another core partner, the emergency response team responsible for attacks on universities, Janet Computer Security Incident Response Team, said it was already collaborating with CERT-UK.

“Janet CSIRT has been working closely behind the scenes with CERT-UK to share and enhance its experience in incident response,” a spokesperson said, in an emailed statement from Jisc, the parent body of the Janet network.

“The new CERT-UK team already shares incident data with CSIRT in real time over the Janet network, and both organisations work collaboratively on the latest cyber threats to the education and research sector and the UK as a whole. We expect that CERT-UK will provide a single point of co-ordination through which the existing UK incident response community can pool their efforts to secure UK cyberspace.”

Charlie McMurdie, former head of the Metropolitan Police Central e-Crime Unit (PCeU) who was involved in the early stages of CERT-UK’s development, said the unit should act as an overarching unit that will enhance the response to major attacks being monitored by other incident response teams.

Previously, CERTs worked in a siloed fashion, with limited collaboration between them, McMurdie said. The new body will aim to fix that weakness.

“Those sub-CERTs could be far stronger and far more effective… if you're picking up something in one sector it just doesn't make sense that it is dealt with in isolation within that sector when there are opportunities to engage and utilise skill sets and intelligence elsewhere. You can disseminate intelligence to prevent cross-sector impact,” she added.

The launch comes at a time of heightened anxieties over attacks on critical infrastructure. Experts last year warned the UK’s energy infrastructure was at risk of being shut down by hackers, while Cabinet Office minister confirmed plans to spend an additional £210m on protecting the nation’s digital assets by 2016.